Shatner, Snoop and De Niro Play Hide-and-Seek in Experimental Portrait Series

Snoop Dogg

William Shatner

Jack Nicklaus

Robert De Niro

Nas

Cindy Sherman

Jay Leno

David Lynch

Michael Stipe

Russell Brand

Weird Al Yankovic

Judd Apatow

Chris Buck’s celebrity portraits are like Zen koans, they are of the subject but do not show the subject. He’s photographing celebrities’ presences rather than their appearances, if that’s possible, by having them hide within his photos.

“In my [regular] work I’m not looking to make an iconic image,” says Buck, a well-known New York portrait photographer. “I’m not trying to make the most Neil Young picture you’ve ever seen of Neil Young. Instead I want to make a picture that’s new and surprising but fair. And Presence [the appropriate title of the portrait series] is like two steps forward from that.”

Instead of William Shatner in Buck’s book we get a frame full of hay bales. Instead of Robert De Niro we get a bathtub. And instead of Snoop Dogg we get a backyard shed with a poodle mugging for the camera.

The hay bales might seem like they say nothing about Shatner until Buck tells you that the actor likes to ride horses. And who can’t see Snoop Dogg sitting in the shed (which is obviously somewhere in the hills of Los Angeles) enjoying a smokeable snack? Buck says the poodle was an anomaly — it’s actually the publicist’s dog that randomly walked in the frame (“I was like fuck yeah, this is a gift,” says Buck of the wandering dog).

As Buck points out, most of us see people in photos through the experiences or relationships we’ve had with them over years, be it by watching Star Trek or, in the case of our parents, having them raise us.

“When you look at a picture of some famous person or even someone close like your dad, you bring a history to that picture, there’s baggage,” says Buck.

Surprisingly, most of the celebrities in the book were open to the idea. The golfer Jack Nicklaus had to be talked into it but eventually came around. Nas was increasingly enthusiastic as the shoot went on and Shatner quickly ponied up to be the first one.

Buck won’t reveal where the celebrities are hiding in each frame (he guarantees they’re in there) but you can imagine they had to be good sports because there are only so many spaces for them to duck into. In the Jay Leno picture it would be an obvious choice to be in the car, but Buck says that’s not the case. He didn’t want the celebrities to be roped off by some kind of wall, be it a car door or another room.

The same is true of the Cindy Sherman portrait. She’s not hiding in the fortuneteller parlor because that would be too easy.

“She had to be more available than that,” he says.

The decision to hide all the celebrities but still have them “present” is a continuation of a style Buck has developed over several years. Unlike some photographers whose approach revolves around creating the splashiest and most revealing photo of the person their photographing, Buck says that he always likes to leave a little bit of a question mark.

“The best portraits always have a bit of mystery,” Buck says.

Part of his decision to take a more circuitous route in his portraiture comes from a careful analysis of photography as truth. While many people confuse the most literal photographs for the most true, Buck thinks the art and fantasy in photography is what’s most revealing.

“I want I to have one foot in reality and one foot in a more fantastical place,” he says.